Her revealing comment punctuates the most relevant part of the story. Behind the whirl of glamorous and rather chilling facts of this case that makes something as personal and emotional as divorce an easy headline, it stands out how his wife was with him from the beginning of his rise from a student at university in Perm in the forbidding Ural Mountains and married 23 years ago in Cyprus.

One of the regular themes of divorces which I have handled over the years is communication. Spouses either seem to talk to little or too much and, when they do, they are frequently failing to grasp what the other is really saying.

Privacy laws aside, the French love a sex scandal just like the rest of the world. They try to pretend that as a country they tolerate affairs, powerful men are somehow entitled to take lovers and the rest of the world is somewhat immature not to understand. The hypocrisy lies in the fact they seriously believe these relationships have no impact on the ability to do their jobs.

Attempts by married men to entice you into their adulterous ways is a little like sitting in the cheap seats and watching events on stage unfold quickly in a bad Scandinavian melodrama. There's an unerring emotional pitch, and an intensity that veers from hysterical, to extra-hysterical.

Filing for divorce because of adultery is no longer as common as it once was. Only 20 years ago, it was blamed for one-in-four divorces. Now, it is the primary factor in less than one-sixth of cases. On the other hand, complaints of unreasonable behaviour have steadily increased. It now accounts for almost half of all divorces.

Thankfully social perceptions of adultery have altered massively in recent years, with a lean towards more understanding on the matter rather than an instant dishing out of cold blame. Seeing things in black and white is fading out, as is the labelling of right and wrong behaviour.

There has been a significant drop in the number of divorce petitions citing adultery as the reason for the breakdown of the marriage. Instead, unreasonable behaviour has become the most commonly cited reason.

I have a theory... I believe, (and I hope), that as many people my age come from the 'divorced parents' ilk, that when we set off into holy matrimony, we will put more effort into our marriage in the hope that it will stick...

The top three most common regrets in women's top five lists of regret were in descending order - Lost virginity to 'wrong' partner - 24% of women cite this as a top five regret, in contrast to only 10% of men. Then came 'Cheated on past or present partner' - 23% of women put this as a top five regret in comparison to 18% of men. Third was - 'Relationship progressed ''too fast'' sexually' - 20% of women put this as a top five regret, while this only applied to 10% of men.

Extramarital affairs are no longer the leading reason why couples split up. Infidelity has been replaced by 'growing apart' and falling out of love as the most popular motivation for filing for divorce.